Summary Module 4

Did people in the past encounter more dangers with leftovers

Were recipes designed in the first place to kill microbes, other than just been tasty

The researchers contested the relation between spices and the microbial killing effect on food

Toying around with morning sickness being a biological control mechanism of microbes in our bodies

Spices are from plants and they developed as 2ndry compounds to protect plants from their enemies

Spices have been around for years and caused many wars

Spices make food taste better- this is their proximate value- what is their ultimate values because all the cultures seem to use them

Since plants use spices to kill microbes, then this might be the ultimate value even for us

To test this, they collected 107 cookbooks from the archives 36 nations. Worked with 42 spices, making sure to exclude salt as it is not a spice.

Black pepper and onion are the most widely used spice, and horseradish, fennel and savory are the least used across cultures. To test their hypothesis they used 5 criteria from microbiology books that analyze recipes

Criteria 1- spices used in cooking have antimicrobial activity- this is generally true

From microbiology books, these researchers found out that of 30 spices, all killed at least a quarter of typical food bacteria and half killed three quarters. 4 most powerful being, garlic, onion, allspice and oregano

The antimicrobial hypothesis assumes that spices are not destroyed in the process of cooking

Criteria 2- spices should be used in hot climates most- there should be more spices used in hotter climate nations

The mean number of spices used in warmer climates was greater especially for spices that have a powerful microbe killing ability like peppers, garlic, onion, cinnamon, cumin, lemon grass, bay leaves, cloves and oregano. Dill and parsley were used more in regions of low temperatures

In cold Norway, the number of spices used was 10 total compared to warm India’s 25.

Criteria 3, the spices in each nation should be good at fighting local bacteria. Not much study had been done on these, but in terms of common bacteria, higher temperature zones had more bacteria of the common type that were inhibited by the spices

Criteria 4- meat recipes should be spicier than vegetable one- meats are more related to food borne illness than vegetables, because vegetables are inhospitable to microbes than meats

meats are more hospital to microbes because there is not defense mechanism

Meats called for 3.9 recipes compared to vegetables at 2.4 spices per recipe

Criteria 5- lower latitudes should have spicier recipes- this was found to be true

Another hypothesis for spice use may be to cover up the smell of spoiled food

Another hypothesis for spice use is for medication, in which case they are not cooked

Another hypothesis for spice use is because of availability and perhaps it is a cultured thing since spices do not initially taste good to people.

Spices may be harmful as allergens, mutagens, teratogens and especially to children

Pregnant women are more susceptible to food borne and infectious illnesses

Morning sickness- a natural remedy to spices that may act as phytotoxins to a mother’s fetus

P29- Morning sickness is also called NVP and occurs throughout the day for pregnant women

P30- When women are pregnant they bodies naturally tries to clear their systems of harmful microbes, but why is this manifested in nausea and how does this affect the outcome of the pregnancy.

P31- Other scientists have worked on NVP, from the basic known facts about expelling germs to protection specifically against spices and phytochemicals negative effects on fetus.

P32- these researchers expanded the work by stating that morning sickness protects both the fetus and the mother from food borne microbes. Testing this with literature in medicine and related fields

P33- Citeria 1. NVP should peak with periods of fetus susceptibility. NVP does indeed do this

P34- Criteria 2- foods that pregnant women are aversive to should contain phytochemical and foods that they crave should not.

P35- These women were indeed averted to foods that contained phytochemicals but not foods that contained spices

P36- Criteria 3-Aversion to foods that contain phytochemicals and spices should peak in the first trimester when, fetuses are most susceptible. This was found to be true

P37- Criteria 4-NVP should have a positive correlation to positive pregnancy outcomes. This was true. It did not correlate with birth defects however.

P38- NVP should be dependent on diet, so that diets with phytochemicals should cause more nausea and vomiting- of the 27 regions compared, 7 experience no NVP and had less meats, but more vegetables in their diet

P39-If NVP indeed protects women and their fetus then, when NVP is treated against, women and their fetus should be more vulnerable- what they found was that women who treated against NVP were less likely to have defective babies. This doesn’t say that NVP is not doesn’t protect women, because these women already had NVP meaning that they would already have healthy babies. It is also possible that before they treated against NVP that the body had already developed aversion to foods that might affect them and their fetus.

P40- Alternate Hypothesis-Perhaps nausea and vomiting are due to high hormones levels in pregnant women and do are not correlated to higher or better pregnancy outcomes. This was found to be true but not consistent with food aversions and cravings

P41-Alternate Hypothesis- NVP as a signal to inform caretakers of pregnant women of the need to protect and feed them more. This is cannot be true as there are societies where NVP does not occur.

P42- Alternate Hypothesis- NVP tries to decrease mothers’ intake, reducing mothers tissue synthesis and making more tissue for the babies. This cannot be true as women do crave some foods and some regions don’t have NVP.

P43- Perhaps morning sickness functions to protect both the mother and the embryo

P44-5- More deaths related to food for Japan than Korea. Reason due to food handling, but then again food in Korea is more spicy

P46- The Japanese use a lot seafood, imported seafood carry a lot of pathogens, no surprise then that they have one of the highest rates of NVP in the world

Conclusion is that NVP is not disease in the sense of the word but a protective mechanism derived from nature